Ben Gibson is congratulated after scoring the only goal for England Under-21s in their friendly against Belarus in Barnsley. Photograph: Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images

England’s chances of success at the forthcoming Under-21 European Championship were put into perspective when they were nearly held by Belarus in their final friendly before setting off for the Czech Republic next week. Ben Gibson’s close range tap-in seven minutes from the end gave England the win, their 15th win in 17 games, though it came when Belarus had just been reduced to 10 men.

After defending doggedly and mostly fairly as a team all night Nikolai Zolotov saw a second yellow card for a foul on Ruben Loftus-Cheek and, though Vladislav Vasilyuchek saved Luke Garbutt’s free-kick, the defender was on hand to snaffle the rebound.

Unbeaten in qualifying and with significant victories against major rivals in friendlies, Gareth Southgate’s team went into this fairly undemanding fixture having won 12 of their previous 13 matches. Yet with Harry Kane not being risked for the first hour after joining the squad late due to club commitments, England struggled for attacking fluency against defensively organised opponents. Arguably the main positive from an unproductive evening was that no one picked up a pre-tournament injury.

England’s evening at least ran more smoothly than that of their opponents, who were caught in traffic congestion and had not arrived by the stated kick-off time.A shirt-sleeved crowd in warm Yorkshire sunshine put up with a half hour delay without too much complaint, although the stadium DJ only appeared to have brought enough tunes for a short preamble and filling the gap with repeated plays of Vindaloo and Three Lions on a Shirt tested everyone’s patience sorely.

Once the game started England were soon on the attack. Gibson headed wide from a corner and Saido Berahino saw a goal ruled out for offside inside the first 10 minutes, before the West Bromwich striker, receiving from the industrious Alex Pritchard, brought the first save of the game from the Belarus goalkeeper. Nathan Redmond was the next to test the Belarus goalkeeper with a rising drive from 20 yards, though for all their approach work England could not find the final ball they required, and their frustration was epitomised when a goalbound shot from Redmond was inadvertently blocked on the six-yard line by Berahino.

The visitors had barely crossed the half way line for much of the first half but just before the interval they served England a warning of what they could do when Siarhei Karpovich broke clear on the right and sent over a cross that found Aliaksandr Yanchenko in the area, only for the striker to misdirect his header. Some of the hype surrounding England’s form and tournament chances had begun to wear off by this point and, though it was never quite as bad as the senior international in Dublin at the weekend there was rather less to cheer about than an enthusiastic crowd might have hoped. Perhaps a certain amount of caution was inevitable in the circumstances, with no one wishing to put themselves at risk of an injury, but England will need more sparkle when competition proper starts against Portugal on Thursday.

Southgate sent on Loftus-Cheek for the second half, as well as replacing John Stones with Calum Chambers, and the Chelsea player Loftus-Cheek immediately gave England more of a physical presence in attack, almost connecting with a cross from Prichard as soon as he joined the game. Just before the hour he rolled a shot-cum-cross across the face of goal that needed only a tap into goal, and that was the cue for the introduction of Danny Ings and Kane both at once.

No one could say England were not trying to force a win but when Ings set up Luke Garbutt for what looked a certain goal the Belarus goalkeeper was equal to the effort. Garbutt gained his reward in the end, or rather Gibson did, though it was slightly worrying that two defenders should combine for the goal with so many strikers on the pitch. “We were always confident, we’ve scored quite a number of late goals,” Southgate said. “Credit to their defence and goalkeeper. On another day we might have won comfortably, but this was just the sort of test we needed. We stuck exactly to our plan, even down to the substitutes. Our approach was spot on.”